State Bar President Diane Diel seeks stronger justice system

On May 8, Diane S. Diel, a sole practitioner in Milwaukee, was sworn in as the 53rd president of the State Bar of Wisconsin. Chief Justice Shirley S. Abrahamson administered the oath of office at the annual convention in Madison. William Domina, Milwaukee County Corporation Counsel, served as the master of ceremony.

Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson (right) congratulates 53rd State Bar President Diane Diel following swearing in ceremony.
Listen to Ceremony
or Download MP3 - 22 MB

In her inaugural comments to an audience that included judges, lawyers, family members, and five of the seven Wisconsin Supreme Court justices, Diel noted that Domina was her opponent for the office of president last year. “Bill and I agreed to do this together because we want to focus on one aspect of professionalism: cordiality and civility – civility of a campaign between lawyers in any context,” she said. “I am so honored and so challenged to take on the leadership of this bar association at this particular time.”
 
Diel recently returned from the Second Annual European Collaborative Practice Conference. While there she met the President of Ireland, Mary McAleese, a law professor, who initiated peace talks in Ireland by inviting representatives of both warring factions in Ireland to dinner in her kitchen to have conversations of a truce.  “What Mary McAleese knew was the same thing that was expressed by Margaret Wheaton – that ‘real change begins with the simple act of people talking about what they care about,’” said Diel.  “With that thought in mind, my message to you today is that it is now time for the members of the State Bar of Wisconsin to talk amongst ourselves candidly and openly about our profession and about what each and every one of us we can do collectively – and individually to enhance it and advance it.”

“We will make that conversation happen in the light of, and in the context of, the larger goals of this association,” said Diel. “We will safeguard our precious heritage of an accessible impartial and trusted judicial system. We must do this. This must be a year in which our conversations include not only professionalism in all of its manifestations, but it must also be a conversation about service to the public, service to our clients.”  

Diel noted that the vision and mission of the State Bar of Wisconsin is twofold. The vision is to deliver excellence in legal services in an accessible value justice system. The mission is to improve the administration of justice and the delivery of legal services and to promote the professional interests of lawyers. She noted the vision and mission embrace a wide range of professional and public policy issues, but two challenges stand out: improving delivery of legal services to the poor and improving the public’s understanding of the role of the judiciary – including the central importance of fair and impartial elections.

Access to justice. Referring to a petition to create an access to justice commission, which will come to the Board of Governors shortly, Diel said. “The petition is a collaborative effort of the stakeholders of the legal service providers. We have received input, and we have revised the petition to create an opportunity to build positive good that will help our state draw attention to the plain and simple fact that – although we give generously, although we care passionately, lawyers and lawyers alone cannot deliver the significant relief to the legal system. We need the entire public, the help of the judiciary, the help of the legislature, the help of the executive branch.”

Justice system. “We need to do everything we can to educate the public about the judicial system, the justice system, and the role of judicial elections,” said Diel. Referring to CNN Legal Analyst Jeffrey Toobin, who spoke earlier in the day about judicial elections. “He reminded us that Alabama has happily yielded its claim to the title as the place with the ‘dirtiest’ supreme court campaigns in the country. The campaign assaults by special interest groups on the airwaves in Wisconsin must be countered with both factual information about our legal system and an impassioned defense of the principles that underlie them.”

“As we take on these and other challenges, let’s recall that our profession is unique: we are the only profession that is responsible for an entire branch of government,” said Diel. “We will talk endlessly and develop programs and possibilities and approaches to inform and educate the public about the importance of the three branches of government and about the fact that we need all three.

“The assaults on the judiciary, in my opinion, cause us to be looking at the risk of creating a government system that will become a two-legged stool – Not one I would sit on. We need to be sure that all the legs of our foundation are strong and intact and we cannot do that without educating the people of the state of Wisconsin,” said Diel. “Too long civics has been out of the school system. Too long an understanding of history and the constitution and the way government works has been absent from the education process. We need to do what we can do, as the Bar, as dedicated public citizens to restoring that education.

“Remember, we do have three branches of government but as a profession we are unique,” she continued. “We are the only profession that is in charge of one of those three branches and that obligation is sacred and important and we need to live with it. We need to take it forward and do better.

All of these challenges exist at a time in which it is possible to despair. It is possible to look and say this can’t be done, but I’m telling you that I think that we all have the tools to do this. We have learned ways to communicate. Our profession has taught them to us – developing skills, the fact that we are positive we are strong and we are articulate spokespeople for the point of view of supporting professionalism amongst lawyers. We’ll carry the march. We can do this and we will do this. And we will do it with civility, poise, respect, and interest-based conversations.”